Bruised Barcelona to bounce back with style against Sociedad

Having been knocked off the top of La Liga for the first time in over a year after their 3-2 loss at home to Valencia, Barcelona can begin to make amends by overcoming a two-goal handicap at 10/11 against Real Sociedad in the first leg of their Copa del Rey semi final.

Gerardo Martino could have hardly picked better opponents to bounce back against, as Sociedad come into this match off the back of a 4-0 defeat at new leaders Atletico Madrid, which was their second away loss by such a margin in 2014, having also gone down 5-1 at Villarreal recently.

Prior to the shock defeat at the hands of Los Che, Martino’s men had won their last three games by at least three strikes.

All of their previous five matches on their own patch, stretching back to the middle of December, saw them sail past this handicap mark and four of Barca’s last six home clashes with Sociedad were won by between three and five goals.

While they’re clearly not the force they were under the glorious three-year reign of Pep Guardiola, Los Blaugrana have won their five Copa del Rey ties under Martino by a combined score of 22-3 and should see off Sociedad with plenty to spare

Another 4-0 loss on the road for Jagoba Arrasate’s side also holds solid value at 10/1, as the hosts have already treated fans to said scoreline in two of their five matches at the Nou Camp this year.

Barcelona have bagged exactly four in 10 of their 36 matches this season, making it their most prevalent 90-minute tally over the campaign so far.

Considering they’ve scored at least that amount in four of Sociedad’s last six visit’s, and five in three of those fixtures, the 5/4 about Barca landing at least the same haul here seems strangely overpriced.

All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.

Fancy a flutter? Sign up today to claim up to £50 in free bets.